BurmaNet News: Dec 30, 2003 - Jan 2, 2004

[editor at burmanet.org]

December 30, 2003 – January 2, 2004, Issue #2397

INSIDE BURMA
Asian Tribune: 'Arrest-spree' by Burmese junta of NLD members in Mandalay
and Tennasserim Division continues
Xinhua: Myanmar's electric power installed capacity rising
DVB: Human Rights Abuses on Mon people in Burma

ON THE BORDER
The Straits Times: Myanmar's Mother Theresa for refugees keeps trying

GUNS
AFP: India says joint operation possible with Myanmar against rebels

DRUGS
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Without Opium, Hunger Looms

MONEY
DVB: Inflation on the rise again in Burma
DVB: Salary hike for Burmese civil servants

REGIONAL
Kaladan News: Burma, India, Thailand Run Survey On Mega Highway Project
Irrawaddy: Now You’re Speaking My Language: Ethnic Radio in Thailand
Kaladan News: Burma Eager to Take Bake Citizens From Bangladesh

OPINION/OTHER
Asian Tribune: KNU Exposes Burma’s Existing Hollowed Situation
Irrawaddy: Burma Talk


INSIDE BURMA
___________________________________

Asian Tribune, January 2, 2004
'Arrest-spree' by Burmese junta of NLD members in Mandalay and Tennasserim
Division continues

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners- Burma (AAPP) states in a
press release that recently members of the National League for Democracy
(NLD) were arrested in Mandalay and Tennasserim.

According to AAPP statement, on December 22, the military Government of
Burma arrested NLD members namely a few - Tin Myint (female), Hninn Pa Pa
(female), Hla Soe, Hla Oo, Myint Oo, Thaung Win, Aung Aung and Kyi Win of
Mandalay Division.

In addition, although several other members were recently released from
prison, they were rearrested again d and sent back to the penitentiary.
They were also the victims of the attack on May 30, 2003 in Depayin,
Sagaing Division before their arrest.

Early last month, Nyi Soe of Tha Yet Chung township, Tennasserim Division
and Aung Min of Pu Law township, Tennasserim Division were arrested by the
order of Captain Tin Maung Win of Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No 262.
They were apprehended for participation in progressive political
activities. They are currently detained in Kaw Thaung prison. Further
more, they are frequently being used as guides in LIB 262's military
operations.

In mid December, Than Soe (female, 35 years old) of Laung Lon Township,
Nyi Nyi Lay (20 years old) of Tha Yet Chaung Township and Phoe Pe (19
years old) of Tha Yet Chaung Township, NLD members of Tennasserim Division
were arrested.

The reasons of their arrests are not available. These repeated arrests are
followed by visits of human rights officers of United Nations and Amnesty
International (AI), who visited Burma in recently.

On December 22, NLD members in Mandalay were also held in custody. Amnesty
International issued a statement outlining a series of serious concerns
substantiated during their visit to Burma, and called on the Burmese
authorities to, "take urgent steps to improve the human rights situation
which has deteriorated significantly since the violent May 30 attack on
the National League for Democracy (NLD)."

Tate Naing, secretary of Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
(Burma) stated that, "The arrests of NLD members inside Burma after the
violent attack on May 30 are still continuing. As the arrests continues
inside Burma, we denounce the military government that usually talks about
rebuilding democracy in Burma."

Presently, in Burma, there are about 1500 political prisoners including
the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.

___________________________________

Xinhua, January 1, 2004
Myanmar's electric power installed capacity rising

The installed capacity of Myanmar's electric power has risen nearly two
folds to 1,219.81 megawatts ( mw) from 706.82 mw in 1988, said the
country's electric power authorities on Thursday.

Over the period, the government has built 28 hydropower plants and six
natural gas ones to generate electricity, the Ministry of Electric Power
said.

Meanwhile, 11 new hydropower projects including the China- contracted
280-mw Paunglaung project and 780-mw Yeywa project in Mandalay division
and a 400-mw Shweli project in northern Shan state are under
implementation, it said.

Upon completion of the 11 projects targeted between 2004 and 2007, an
additional 1,964 mw of electricity will be made available for public
consumption, it added.

According to the ministry, the country's electric power consumption has
grown to 5,064.2 million units or kilowatt-hours, up by 2.27 times from
2,226.45 million units in 1988.

Myanmar is a country in serious short of electricity. It is difficult for
the people to get normal power supply and they frequently have to depend
on their own power generators to carry out normal functions.

The electricity shortage problem has affected its economic development and
foreign investment in the country.

___________________________________

Democratic Voice of Burma, December 31, 2003
Human Rights Abuses on Mon people in Burma

Burma’s military junta, the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) is
still arresting and torturing Mon villagers for allegedly supporting Mon
rebels on the Thai-Burma border.
2 Mon Buddhist monks and 40 villagers were arrested on 27 December for
allegedly supporting a Mon rebel group led by Naing Luan, according to a
Mon reporter.
According to him, the monks and villagers from Ye Township in southern
Burma were interrogated and tortured by means of exposing them in the
burning sun for days.
The area is blacklisted by the SPDC and curfew is being imposed. 5
civilians were killed in a single night for flouting the curfew.
There have been more human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings
and the oppression of civilians in Mon State by the SPDC after the main
Mon rebel group NMSP (New Mon State party) signed the ceasefire agreements
with the junta.


ON THE BORDER
___________________________________

The Straits Times, January 1, 2004
Myanmar's Mother Theresa for refugees keeps trying
By Nirmal Ghosh

In a simple, airy room with wooden benches, a barefoot woman is training
volunteers who want to work at her remote health clinic within sight of
Myanmar.

The village of Mae Tao in Tak province is just 4km from the border, but in
the nearest town of Mae Sot, where the streets are a fusion of cultures,
mention Dr Cynthia Maung's name to a tuktuk driver and he will have no
trouble finding her.

For more than 10 years, Dr Maung's sprawling clinic with 150 staff members
has been a lifeline for the displaced fleeing the military regime in
Myanmar.

The 44-year-old mother of three lives only a few hundred kilometres from
the outskirts of the Myanmar city of Moulmein where she was born.
She cannot return, because she is identified too closely with the
rebellious Karen people for the ruling State Peace and Development Council
to allow her, she says.

But she is now known as the Mother Theresa of refugees and she has won
international recognition for her work.

Displaced by the upheavals which have racked Myanmar since 1988, she still
has to cope with the occasional raid from police looking for illegals. But
encouraged by friends, she continues with her work.

In her large, but packed office all available shelf space is filled with
files and papers. There is a large picture of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on
the wall and three smaller pictures of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.

'The broader issue is the situation in Burma is getting worse. We have
been here many years providing health services, but we need to get into
preventive care...,' Dr Maung said.

'The issue of displaced people needs to be recognised to develop a plan
for the long-term benefit of the population, because the health-care
system in Burma (Myanmar) has collapsed,' she said.

Fifty per cent of cases are from Myanmar.

Death rates among new-born babies and mothers giving birth are high,
malaria is common, and the clinic's seven doctors - three from Myanmar,
the others foreign volunteers - also have to cope with respiratory
illnesses, liver ailments, tuberculosis, hypertension and HIV.

The clinic provides a wide range of services - reproductive health
counselling, pre-and post-natal care, a maternity ward, eye clinic, blood
bank, immunisation and a prosthetic limb unit mostly for an average of
five landmine victims a month.

The clinic is supported by several international and Thai NGOs and some
foreign governments' programmes. Treatment is free, but patients must buy
a 10-baht (43-Singapore-cent) registration card which is good for life.

Until 1997, Dr Maung used to cross the border with a mobile clinic.
'I feel sad,' she said. 'After all these years I haven't seen any change
or improvement in the situation.'

She believes the Thai government's fresh approach to the issue of the
displaced - to have the border settled and push them back - is good in
theory.

'Go back to what? To rebuild the country will take years. Even in
ceasefire areas, there is no health and education system in place,' she
said.

The displaced people issue is a thorny one for Thailand.
In the province of Tak, around half the population is said to be from
across the border. Last week, hospitals in border areas said they had lost
16 million baht in five districts, treating thousands of Myanmar refugees
who could not afford to pay.

The interview with Dr Maung is interrupted by a man bringing a message -
three of the clinic's patients are among more than 100 striking Myanmar
workers rounded up by police at a factory in the Mae Sot area. These are
everyday realities here.

If she had a New Year's wish, she told The Straits Times, it would be
'just to keep trying'.

GUNS
___________________________________

Agence France Presse, January 2, 2004
India says joint operation possible with Myanmar against rebels
By Zarir Hussain

India is training troops in Myanmar for a possible joint operation against
anti-Indian rebels amid a similar crackdown in the Himalayan kingdom of
Bhutan, the chief of the Indian army said Friday.

General N.C. Vij said separatists fighting in northeastern India were
still operating in neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar after losing most
of their bases in Bhutan.

"We have sent our troops to train Myanmarese forces and we might well come
up to that stage for joint operations," Vij said in Guwahati, the capital
of the revolt-ridden state of Assam, after a visit to the Bhutan border.

"Myanmar and Bangladesh are still safe havens for the militants, but the
presence of militants is comparatively higher in Bangladesh than in
Myanmar," Vij told reporters.

Vij is the latest Indian official to allege a rebel presence in
Bangladesh, which denies any extremists operate from its territory.

Bhutan, at the urging of New Delhi, on December 15 launched its first
military operation in modern times to oust three rebel groups that had
carried out hit-and-run attacks on Indian targets from bases in the
Buddhist kingdom.

Vij said 650 rebels had been killed or taken into custody. He did not
break down the figure.

The Indian army, which is backing the operation, had earlier reported the
deaths of 141 rebels and eight Bhutanese troops and support personnel
since the offensive started.

Bhutan has not released casualty figures but said its forces have
destroyed all 30 camps run by the militants.

Vij, however, said rebels still controlled two bases.

"Militants are still holding on to two of their camps and fighting is
still going on there," he said. "But very soon they will be neutralised."

The rebel strength was estimated at 3,000 before the operation began. More
than 10,000 people have died in separatist violence in Assam since the
1980s.

India has in recent years been building ties with Myanmar, partly to
counter what it perceives as growing Chinese influence on its neighbour.

Ties were strained after the military took power in Yangon in 1988 and
India granted sanctuary to exiles.

The military campaign by Indian ally Bhutan came ahead of a seven-nation
South Asian summit that will start Sunday in Islamabad.

Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said Thursday that the Bhutanese
campaign was "an example worth emulating by all those countries where
terrorism takes shelter."

Bangladeshi troops later Thursday arrested six armed Indian nationals in
the Habiganj district.

Home ministry officials in Dhaka said the six were suspected of belonging
to an Indian rebel group and would be charged with illegally entering
Bangladesh and carrying weapons.

Separately, India accuses Pakistan of arming and training rebels fighting
Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989. Pakistan contends it provides only
moral and diplomatic support to a "freedom struggle" in the divided
Muslim-majority territory.

DRUGS
___________________________________

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 18, 2003
Without Opium, Hunger Looms
By Christoph Hein

Mong Pawk, 17 December. Zhao Ainup does not drink. He guzzles. "Gambei -
drink up." At ten o'clock in the morning one Johnny Walker to freedom, one
to the future, and one to good business. Zhao Ainup needs encouragement.
He has a hard job, because he is something akin to the foreign minister of
the Wa.  The ethnic group in northeastern Burma is known mainly for
cultivating opium, trading in drugs and weapons, and maintaining its own
army.  But now the Wa want to change their image, and Zhao Ainup has been
tasked with the job. "Gambei" - to that, let's drink a whiskey.  By lunch,
it will have been nine. To good business, the future, freedom.  And, of
course, to recognition of the Wa by neighboring countries and the West at
large.

Those countries, however, are having a hard time doing just that: American
politicians like to refer to the Wa as the largest narcotics army in the
world.  The Thai Prime Minister Thaksin claimed the Wa had planned his
assassination because he tried to eradicate drugs.  At the same time, he
allowed his special police to kill over 2,500 people in their ten month
"war on drugs."  Neighboring China is pushing for an end to opium and
heroin crossing the borders into its territory.  Even though the new
drugs, amphetamines or "Yaa Baa," are being consumed much more frequently
in Bangkok's clubs, by overworked construction workers, by prostitutes,
graphic designers, even police forces from China to Thailand - opium
remains the symbol of addiction.  Its reputation sticks to the Wa like the
black gum itself sticks to your fingers.  If the Wa want to change their
reputation, they have to get rid of the opium.  It is a hard fight.

Poppy has been cultivated, and opium extracted, in Burma for centuries.
Supported by the British colonial rulers, encouraged during the Cold War
by western intelligence agencies in the fight against communism, it was
the main source of income for the drug barons of the golden triangle for
many decades.  After Afghanistan, Burma is the second-largest opium
producer in the world.  And thus it is doubly shunned: once because of the
military dictatorship in Rangoon, and once because of its poppy
cultivation.  The substance from the capsules of the poppy plant is opium
on the cane tables of traders in Burma.  It arrives as heroin in cities
around the world.  And the fault lies mainly with the Wa.  400,000 of them
live in Burma, 75% of them in the Wa special region in the northeastern
part of the country.  Another 600,000 live on the other side of the border
in China, and perhaps 100,000 in Thailand.  The mountain jungle covers all
artificial borders, creates hiding places and hidden trading paths.

The opium trade, that was the past, say the leaders of the Wa.  The future
will be different: growth, wealth, respect from the neighbors and the
West.  The Wa envision a development akin to that of southern China. Their
plan is clear: beginning in 2005, no more opium can be exported from the
region, and farmers can no longer grow poppies - regardless of the costs.

"We have to change, and so we have to get tough," says Li Ziru.  The
deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the United Wa State Party gets
up from his heavy wooden chair.  His pants ride up, revealing his pajamas
below.  His mobile phone is now turned off.  His eyes narrow to slits.  Li
is focusing on the matter at hand: "We want food for our people.  A social
net. More wealth.  And we want to develop this from our own strength.  By
2005, when we will no longer have poppy here, people here should live
better."

Na Pha has heard these words before.  But still they scared the farmer in
the small village of Nam Maung Tai.  "Last year we harvested about 3.6
kilos of opium, earning about 500 dollars.  With that money, we bought
rice and medicine, some clothes for the children.  This year, we can't buy
anything - without poppy we have no means of earning money."  Na Pha sits
on a clump of clay on her dried-out field.  Her three children fight over
a toy gun, a "super plane" from China, a dead dragonfly.  The idyllic
atmosphere of Nam Maung Tai, her village, is deceptive.  Although the cow
bells toll, the Baptist chapel stands on a mountain, and the holy place of
the animists lies across, no god can help when the Wa bosses give a
command.

Nang Yee Noon, village head in neighboring Wan Lone, says: "We've had many
crises here.  But now we are facing the worst one: we will go hungry.  Our
people will suffer.  The only thing we can do is stick together and work
harder than ever."  Further north, where the mountains are higher, even
hard work won't help - the soil is too poor, the air too dry to cultivate
rice.  So the Wa relocate the poorest families from the villages into the
lowlands.  And if they don't want to leave?  "Then we have to put them on
a truck.  After all, relocating will improve their lives," says Ya Ku,
party secretary of the Wa for the district town of Mong Pawk.  50,000
people are said to have already been relocated.  The Wa have never had it
easy, and they didn't make it easy for anyone.  On the main road, a group
of soldiers from the United Wa State Army.  Camouflage outfits, sneakers,
rifles.  The older soldiers carry Russian or Chinese machine guns, the
younger ones wooden rifles.  The recruits could be ten, maybe twelve years
old.  Children's faces, painted in the camouflage colors of the jungle.

The close connections between military and party and the strict
organization of the Wa show its communist roots.  The Communist Party
Burma went underground in 1948, and some fighters hid out in the wild
north east.  Two decades later, the Chinese began supporting the communist
neighbors with weapons, munitions, and instruction.  For years, the Wa
were the core of communist troops in Burma.  But in April 1989 they
revolted against the Communist party and stormed their headquarters.  The
leading elite of the communists fled across the border to China.  The
"revolution of April 17" is still a date on the flag of the Wa party,
alongside the yellow star.  But despite the revolution, the Wa decided to
keep the communist leadership structure.

"They are coming a long way - from a jungle army of rebels to a civil
society," says Jean-Luc Lemahieu.  The Belgian directs the Burma Office
against Drugs and Crime of the United Nations (UN) from the capital
Rangoon.  And the well-spoken Lemahieu is also afraid: "There is the
threat of a hunger crisis.  There will be a humanitarian disaster in the
Wa in 2005."  Of course Lemahieu and his guys also want to stop the drug
cultivation and trade in Burma, with the help of American, Japanese and
German money.  And there are successes: in 1996, 163,000 hectares of poppy
were being cultivated in Burma, today it is only 63,000.  "Each year, we
eradicate as many poppy fields as exist in all of Laos," says Lemahieu.
But the pace which the Wa leadership is now demanding seems to be too
fast.

Lemahieu's partner and opponent is Bao Yuxiang.  He is the strong man in
the land of the Wa.  He heads up the politburo and chairs the central
committee.  "He is the king of the Wa," says Lemahieu.  "Whenever one asks
him about democracy, he answers that he consults with twelve people -
isn't that democracy?"  Indeed, the "king" is not alone: he shares power
with his three brothers.  The first is polit commissar and leads the
south, the second is district chair in the north.  But the third has
decided to "freelance": the father of supposedly 17 children and commander
of a brigade stands accused of being a criminal, a drug boss - against the
declared wishes of his brothers.

"If I don't manage to eradicate opium, I will chop off my head and send it
to you," promised Bao Yuxiang the drug fighters of the UN - without being
asked to do so.  But at the moment it does not seem as though he will have
to behead himself.  His people seem to be obeying.  And to be suffering.
"We used opium as medicine.  It helps against diarrhea, against malaria,"
says Nang Yee Noon.  The village headman sits in a bamboo hut and is
sipping tea.  Behind him, against the wall, UN workers have noted on a
piece of cardboard what makes up the village of Wan Lone: 264 inhabitants,
of which 92 are younger than ten.  37 buffaloes, 60 cows, 11 hectares
poppy fields.  "Each of the 51 families here had between half and five
kilos of opium per year," says Nang.  "But soon we won't have any, or our
leaders will put us into jail."  One kilo opium - that's at least 45 old
Indian silver coins.  They are the barter currency in the Burmese
mountains.  On the Mong Pawk market that would fetch about $125.  And that
in turn could buy colorful Chinese blankets, plastic buckets, soap, and
especially medicine.

The party bosses of the Wa know this, and have started an offensive
defense.  They had the Chinese build a cigarette factory "Golden
Triangle."  But it hasn't been operational for weeks, because there
weren't enough buyers for this northern Burmese product.  Two small
schnapps distilleries were built. At least at the Bang Kok Hongbang Wine
Co., the signs of the times have been well understood - here rice is
turned into Hongyung schnapps.  "To support the realization of the UN
project for the eradication of opium cultivation and to support the
economy of the Wa state, the Wa finance ministry founded the Hongbank
Wine" reads the golden label on the bottles.  Drinking from highest
authority.

But even if the schnapps runs down the throat of the Wa, the money runs
into different pockets.  Every factory is built and run with the help of
the Chinese.  The big neighbor to the east is all too ready to lend a
helping hand.  All throughout the Wa, the Chinese yuan is used as the
currency, the writing is Chinese, and the clocks run according to Peking
time, not that of the Burmese capital Rangoon.

It was the Chinese who built the small market in Mong Pawk, on which
plastic wares from China are now sold alongside opium.  For a few
garage-like concrete structures and a few metal shelters, they received
logging licenses for the region.

Would they do the same again today?  "No," says Ya Ku, the party
secretary.  "If only because we haven't had a forest here since then." 
The forest doesn't exist a few mountains and valleys further south of Mong
Pawk anymore either.  Jungle has to make way for plantations.  Rubber
trees as far as the eye can see.  "This is a pilot plantation for the
future of the region following the opium ban of 2005," says Wang Ping, the
Chinese manager.  He has learned his statements by heart.  He proudly
tells of employing 4,000 villagers.  In the coming years he plans to
triple the land under cultivation to 6,000 hectares - larger than Lake
Starnberg [near Munich].

China, whose border is even before the next mountain peak, has promised
the tax-free import of the rubber.  "After all, we are working against
opium cultivation here," says Wang.  And the farmers?  They have given up
their fields and are now field hands on the mega plantation.  "We pay them
for their work, we build schools," says Mr. Wang in a soft voice.  But
more than half the children that attend school in the barracks here are
Han Chinese, who moved across the border.  The schoolbooks are Chinese.

And the pay for the Wa farmers?  "They receive rice from us," says he.
"But when we sell rubber, we also pay them cash."

Kam Pang, the old farmer in the nearby Wa village, shakes his head. "Yes,"
he says, "the Chinese give everyone working on the plantation rice during
the planting period.  About 500 grams a day."  That is worth less than 15
cents.  "In 1998 we had to clear the area.  Now they have told us the next
seven to eight years will be difficult."  Kam sits on a tree stump.  "But
then we are supposed to get paid in money, too.  Definitely."

Note: This article appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on
December 18, 2003. Translation from the German by the UNODC Myanmar
Country Office with author's approval.


MONEY
___________________________________

Democratic Voice of Burma, December 30, 2003
Inflation on the rise again in Burma

Despite the news of salary hike for civil servants in Burma, the inflation
rate in the country is rising steadily again, according to merchants in
Rangoon and Mandalay.

The prices of gold, US dollar and staple rice are rising to previous highs
and the import-export businesses are suffering as a result.

The rise is said to be connected to recent banking crisis in Burma and the
US economic sanctions on the military junta, the SPDC (State peace and
Development Council) for its human rights abuses and failure to release
political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

A timber merchant told DVB that their businesses have to be stopped
because of heavy-handed crackdowns on transportation of goods.

Before, timber merchants had to bribe two departments to get their logs
transported from rural Burma to the capital Rangoon but now they have to
bribe at least five departments, said the merchant.

Burmese journalists pointed out that the inflation has more effects on
normal Burmese citizens than the merchants who could weather the storm
while playing golf.

___________________________________

Democratic Voice of Burma, December 30, 2003
Salary hike for Burmese civil servants

An unidentified Burmese civil servant said the salary of civil servants in
Burma is to be increased by 5000 kyats on 31 December by the military
junta of Burma, the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council).

The hike is said to ‘alleviate’ the difficulties of civil servants and at
the same time, the junta is to stop supplies of subsidised rice to them. A
minister notified the hike to all departments concerned on 25 December but
there has been no official statement.

A civil servant from Rangoon who doesn’t want to be identified told DVB
that with 5000 kyats, one could only buy 10 ‘pyi’ (about 20 kilos) of rice
and the salary ‘hike’ will leave the civil servants worse off.

Although the junta claims that the hike is to level off the salary system,
many people believe that it is to do with the cessation of forced purchase
of rice from farmers and it is an attempt of the junta’s finance
department to balance its budget.

REGIONAL
___________________________________

Kaladan News, January 1, 2004
Burma, India, Thailand Run Survey On Mega Highway Project

Burma, India and Thailand have conducted a survey in New Delhi, for the
construction of a (1,360-km) long highway, connecting the three countries
to expand trade, tourism and people-to people contact, according to a
correspondent of local newspaper.

The meeting discussed route alignment of the highway as recommended by the
technical taskforce. Construction of the highway will be complete in three
phases.

India agreed to consider a line of credit and finance the construction of
Chaungma-Yinmabin (30-km) and Lingadaw-Letsgan-Pokokku (48-km), up
gradation of Uinmabin-Pale-Lingadaw (50-km) and Bagan-Meiktila (132-km)
segments of the highway.

Thailand has agreed to finance Thaton-Hpa-an-Kawkareik-Myawaddy (62km)
section.

Burma agreed to finance the constructions of all weather intermediate
lane, approach roads at both ends from Pakokku to Bagan and reconstruction
of the weak bridges.

Foreign Ministers of three countries attended the meeting and they also
decided to meet again in 2004.

___________________________________

Irrawaddy, December 30, 2003
Now You’re Speaking My Language: Ethnic Radio in Thailand
By Kevin R. Manning. Additional reporting by Kyaw Zwa Moe, Naw Seng and
Htain Linn.

One day in late 2002, a Shan man in his mid-twenties picked up the phone
and called a radio broadcaster. He told the broadcaster of his life in
southern Shan State, Burma, an area dotted with numerous drug factories.
He said easy access to methamphetamine pills led him and many of his
friends to get hooked on the drugs. Thanks to your program, he told the
radio host, he quit using drugs and moved to Thailand.

Zai Awn, himself a Shan immigrant, took that phone call at his studio in
Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. In 1999, Zai Awn began recording a Shan
language radio program at the office of Images Asia, an NGO that produces
documentary materials. Three days a week, Shan in Burma and Thailand can
listen to Zai Awn’s broadcast about drug and environment issues in their
native tongue.

Migrant workers can also tune into a Shan language program dedicated to
their specific health needs, produced by the staff at the Migrant
Assistance Program (MAP), an NGO also based in Chiang Mai. The MAP office
is also home to a Karen language program which provides information to
people living inside refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border. The three
shows appear as part of the ethnic language service on Radio Thailand, the
country’s national broadcaster.

The programs are aimed at ethnic minorities exiled from their homeland,
many of whom are illiterate and struggle to speak Thai and Burmese. The
broadcasts offer Shan and Karen an opportunity to receive information
tailored to their needs, in their own language when it is needed most. For
migrants with serious health or legal problems, such timeliness is vital.

Plus, access to Shan and Karen language programs helps migrants and
refugees overcome feelings of isolation and improves self-esteem, said
Jackie Pollock, a MAP advisor. "The biggest impact is morale," she said.
"People feel very supported to have programs in their native language."

The Shan language program at MAP began in 1996. Its ten minute spots can
be heard on Radio Thailand five days a week. Taped broadcasts are relayed
by a Thai army station in Chiang Rai, and three community stations near
the Burmese border in the towns of Pai, Mae Hong Son and Fang.

The ethnic Karen team at MAP, which started its show in 1998, is granted
ten to 15 minutes a day for their spots. Zai Awn’s program is available on
Radio Thailand three days a week, for five to ten minutes.

The audience for the ethnic language programs stretches from China’s
Yunnan Province to the southernmost reaches of Thailand. Radio Thailand’s
mission is to reach out to ethnic people in Thailand, but the shows
produced by the Chiang Mai NGOs target Burmese as well.

"My main target is Shan people and other ethnic minority groups inside
Burma who can understand Shan language," said Zai Awn. The MAP office
receives letters from people living in Shan State as well as Shan
listeners in Thai prisons, said Nang Hseng Oo, one of the broadcasters.

How many people listen to the shows is difficult to say, since the primary
audience is comprised of itinerant migrant workers and refugees, as well
as ethnic residents of northern Thailand and Shan State. Refugee
organizations estimate that at least 150,000 Shan live in Thailand.

Saengmuang Maungkorn, a Thai Shan descended from Burmese parents, left his
job as a construction consultant to join MAP’s foray into radio.
Travelling around work sites in Thailand’s north, he had regularly met
Shan migrants who couldn’t get legal and health information because they
didn’t understand Thai. Today, he still travels to construction projects
near the MAP office, surveying listeners about past programs and fielding
requests for future spots.

Before writing a script, members of the Karen language radio staff
frequently visit border camps to ask refugees for ideas of what to include
on their show. For instance, after identifying a need for HIV/AIDS
programming on a recent trip, the staff decided to use drama to tackle the
topic. They returned to the camp with a completed script to get further
comment and ensure that their audience would be well served. Their efforts
resulted in "Love Never Dies," a 21-chapter radio play.

One scene in "Love Never Dies" finds two Karen men talking about how one
of them contracted HIV. The infected man tells his friend he had sex with
two other women before he got married. "I thought they didn’t have
HIV/AIDS because they are very young and look very innocent," he says. "We
can’t know who has HIV/AIDS by looking," the friend replies. "Only through
blood testing can we know who is infected or not."

After the show aired, requests for tapes of the play appeared in MAP’s
mailbox. Many newly arrived refugees who heard, or heard about, the play
were eager to send copies to friends and family inside Burma. People
wanted the tapes because there is a lack of reliable health information in
Burma and infected people are often shunned and subject to discrimination,
said a member of MAP’s Karen team, who asked not be named.

The positive response to the play led the staff to begin work on a sequel
and to include the characters from "Love Never Dies" in plays focussing on
other issues.

Because they are easy to understand, drama programs are a regular feature
of MAP’s ethnic language service. Saengmuang Maungkorn and Hseng Oo
frequently comb through Burmese and Thai periodicals for stories they can
convert to short radio plays.

Saengmuang wishes he could broadcast more news, as he did when the show
started. In 2001, Radio Thailand told the producers of the Shan and Karen
programs in Chiang Mai that they could no longer include news in their
broadcasts, said Pollock.

"The Thai government is afraid to damage the relationship between Thailand
and Burma," Saengmuang said. "That’s why we are allowed to broadcast just
a health program."

Because the Shan language program Zai Awn produces covers drug and
environmental issues it is carefully regulated by Radio Thailand. Topics
like drug production and trafficking, or work on the dam on the Salween
River are strictly prohibited, Zai Awn said. The ethnic Wa cannot even be
mentioned. Thailand blames the United Wa State Army for the flood of speed
pills entering the country.

Due to the regulations, Zai Awn’s program focuses primarily on drug
prevention efforts and forest conservation. The community stations that
receive MAP’s Shan service also prohibit broadcasts related to political
issues, said Hseng Oo. To ensure all the producers follow the rules, each
show’s script is sent to Radio Thailand before the broadcast, in the
ethnic language and Thai.

In addition to providing health, legal and environmental information, the
programs serve another important function—connecting people with distant
friends and loved ones. The MAP office routinely receives letters and
phone calls from ethnic Shan and Karen who cannot reach people by phone. A
request program, which announces messages from the audience to their
families inside Burma, is a popular feature of MAP’s Shan language
program.

Some face-to-face meetings have even resulted from the mediation of the
broadcasters. One Thai Karen requested that the program send a message to
his friend from a town hundreds of miles away, asking the man to come see
him on a particular day, said the Karen broadcaster.

Saengmuang Maungkorn wants to capitalize on all of radio’s advantages to
better serve his community in the future. "We want to set up our own
community radio—for migrants by migrants," he said.

A program related solely to the HIV/AIDS issue is one of MAP’s long-term
goals, said Pollock. She hopes to incorporate radio into the
organization’s involvement in a Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria project aimed at migrant workers in Thailand.

Zai Awn has plans of his own. He wants to expand his show to cover many
issues of interest to Shan. "I want to do my show like the BBC," he said.

___________________________________

Kaladan News, December 30, 2003
Burma Eager to Take Bake Citizens From Bangladesh

Chittagong, December 30: The Burma government is eager to take back its
citizens from the refugee camps in Bangladesh as early as possible,
according to a local newspaper of Bangladesh.

 Newly appointed ambassador of Burma U Thane Myint said this while he was
presenting his credentials to president Iajuddin Ahmed at his office on
28th December 2003.

 Welcoming the ambassador, president pointed out the matter of
repatriation of rest of the Burmese refugees and hoped that the Burmese
government would “understand the urgency” of the situation.

“Both Chairman of the SPDC and Prime Minister of Bangladesh recent visits
in turn had further consolidated the friendly relations between the two
countries. He further stressed the need for increasing volume of trade and
more cooperation in the field of education and hoped that the proposed
road-link between Bangladesh and
Burma would ensure a better cooperation,” said the president.

The newly appointed envoy, U Thane Myint, expressed satisfaction at the
existing friendly bilateral relations and hoped that the friendly ties
existing between the two countries, particularly economic cooperation
would be diversified in future.

OPINION / OTHER
___________________________________

Asian Tribune, December 31, 2003
KNU Exposes Burma’s Existing Hollowed Situation

Karen National Union Supreme Headquarters in a press statement released
today exposed the real hollowed situation in Burma.

According to their analysis of the Central Committee of the KNU, Burma is
facing serious political and economic problems, as a result of the failure
to resolve the existing political problems justly.

In an emergency meeting of the central committee members and candidate
central committee members of the KNU which met on December 29 - 30, said
in the press statement:

“Currently, what is urgently needed for the country is to begin meaningful
dialogues, resolve the political problems justly and undertake political
reforms in accordance with aspirations of the ethnic nationalities and the
entire people.”

The full text of the press statement is given below:

The KNU central committee members and candidate central committee members
attended, in full strength, the Central Committee emergency meeting held
from December 29 to 30, 2003.

In the in-depth analysis of the internal and external situation of the
country, the meeting finds that Burma is facing serious political and
economic problems, as a result of the failure to resolve the existing
political problems justly.

Currently, what is urgently needed for the country is to begin meaningful
dialogues, resolve the political problems justly and undertake political
reforms in accordance with aspirations of the ethnic nationalities and the
entire people.

The KNU has always called for resolution of fundamental political problems
by political means through dialogue. Accordingly, the KNU has welcomed the
overture for dialogue made by the SPDC military regime and the KNU will
make effort for the emergence of dialogue, in the near future, between the
KNU and the SPDC military regime.

In closing, we, the KNU, affirm our determination to resolutely stand and
endeavor for the basic interests of the Karen people, for freedom,
justice, unity and peace for all our fellow ethnic nationalities and the
entire people.

___________________________________

Irrawaddy, December 31, 2003
Burma Talk
By Kyaw Zwa Moe

Bertil Lintner is regarded by many as the most authoritative Western voice
on Burma. But these days his articles on Burma appear less frequently in
the Far Eastern Economic Review, for whom he has written for the last 20
years.

Has he lost interest in Burma? No. The Swedish journalist still keeps his
eyes on Burma from his home in northern Thailand. But for journalists
there is not much going on in Burma, he says.

"The only thing [to write] about was whether Razali was going to Burma or
not," Lintner said, referring to UN special envoy Razali Ismail. The
emphasis on such shallow news tired him.

He has thus expanded the area he covers for the Hong-Kong based magazine.
Today, Burma is only one of the several places he follows when writing on
regional security issues, insurgency and increasingly, affairs in North
Korea. His most recent book, Blood Brothers, dealt with crime syndicates
in Asia. He is currently working on a book about North Korea.

Lintner also wrote five investigative books about Burma, on subjects
ranging from the country’s democracy movement to ethnic insurgency and
drug trafficking. He still keeps up-to-date on Burma. But little of the
news he shares is good.

He feels the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party is
ineffective at present because its leadership was decimated after the
attack on Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters on May 30. Most of the
party’s executives have been in detention since that day and its offices
have been closed by the government.

In light of such circumstances, he doesn’t agree with those who make
comparisons between the NLD and the Africa National Congress (ANC) from
South Africa. Unlike the NLD, the ANC was strong, well organized and able
to conduct party business more easily.

When Nelson Mandela was in prison, other people in the ANC were able to
carry on with the movement. But the NLD is different. "Without Suu Kyi,
the NLD is nothing," Lintner said. "She is the symbol."

He quoted an Indian diplomat in Rangoon who said "Suu Kyi is a saint," and
compared her with India’s Mahatma Gandhi. Lintner agreed with the diplomat
that Suu Kyi is always right in principal, but Lintner questioned her
political shrewdness and ability to manipulate the other side as Gandhi
did so adeptly.

Lintner also thinks the NLD and the opposition movement missed an
important opportunity to achieve their goal of a democratic Burma.
Burma could have changed in 1990 right after the NLD’s landslide election
victory, he believes. The NLD should have called for mass action to
install the elected government, a move he feels would have been
successful. However, the party failed to mobilize the people at a critical
juncture. Such an opportunity will probably never arise again, he says.

The respected writer sees two possible scenarios which could break Burma’s
current deadlock.

The first is the enactment of multilateral sanctions by nations and
international bodies which are unified in their approach to Burma. The
multilateral alliance can include the United Nations, the European Union
and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he said.

But he is skeptical about current UN efforts. "They all seem to believe
that everyone will participate in talks, but is that realistic?" he asked,
shaking his head.

A crack within the military could also lead to change, Lintner believes.
Therefore, attention should be paid to Burma’s secretive leadership. But
it is also wrong to focus on a possible rift between hardline and moderate
factions within the armed forces. "They all are hardliners," he said. "The
military will hang on."

Lintner doesn’t think that the newly appointed Prime Minister, Gen Khin
Nyunt, belongs to a moderate faction, as others have stated.

The perception comes from the idea that among Burma’s top three
leaders—Sr-Gen Than Shwe, Gen Khin Nyunt and Gen Maung Aye—Khin Nyunt is
the most engaging with foreigners, according to Lintner. But he cautions
against inferring that Khin Nyunt’s willingness to be the junta’s public
face means he is inclined to listen to outside opinions. "Khin Nyunt likes
to manipulate foreigners," he said.

On the issue of foreign aid, Lintner said aid presently benefits the
government more than the people. "If there is no transparency and
accountability then aid is a problem," he said. As an example, he recalled
when UNICEF sent planeloads of medicine to Rangoon to help those wounded
during the 1988 uprising. The medicine was intercepted by the Army before
it could reach the victims.

Jumping to the topic of drugs, Lintner had much to say. His expertise on
drugs in Burma is well known and his comments are often at odds with
assessments offered by the Burmese government and international anti-drug
organizations.

Lintner and his Shan wife spent several months in Shan and Kachin State
during his famous clandestine cross-country Burma trip in 1986. His
articles on the underground criminal activities inside Burma may be the
reason he is routinely denied a visa by the Burmese. Some government
officials say he will never be allowed back into Burma.

When asked what he thinks of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
project in Rangoon, Lintner responded: "They don’t understand what’s going
on. They have no idea how the drug business is run. They haven’t yet
realized they are dealing with some of biggest drug traffickers in the
world in Lin Min Xiang and Bao Yuxiang."

Lin Min Xiang and Bao Yuxiang have reached "peace" agreements with Burma’s
ruling junta, which regards the two as "national race leaders." They have
both implemented drug eradication projects in territory under their
control and have been working with UNODC officials in Burma.

UNODC Rangoon Representative Jean-Luc Lemahieu denies his group is working
with drug dealers, but says that the primary concern is helping poor
farmers and their families. "Providing assistance now, is our ethical and
moral duty," Jean-Luc says.

Lintner, however, thinks that the UNODC’s work in Burma has been largely
counterproductive. He accused UNODC officials of failing to understand
politics in Southeast Asia. "They are useless bureaucrats and the quality
of their work is not surprising," he said.

In September, Gen Khin Nyunt claimed that his government is conducting
opium yield surveys in collaboration with the US and the UNODC. "Reports
from these organizations showed a yearly decrease in poppy cultivation and
yield," the Prime Minister said.

But Lintner doesn’t think Burma is making progress on drug eradication
because drug production is not in decline, even though the military
government launched a 15-year drug eradication plan in 1999. Moreover,
large quantities of methamphetamine pills, known locally as yaa baa, are
now being produced. Fifteen years ago there was no methamphetamine
production along the border.

Big-time drug dealers who now act as legitimate businessmen or are
promoted as national leaders have no interest in seeing change, Lintner
thinks. In Wa state alone, he said, drug production, CD piracy, and gun
smuggling are widespread.

Lintner’s latest Burma article alerted Review readers to the growing
military ties between Burma and North Korea. The piece alleges that the
military leaders in Rangoon have been seeking missiles from Pyongyang.

Agents and technicians from North Korea were also seen in central Burma,
he reported, perhaps helping the Burmese set up a nuclear reactor,
something the Russians previously offered to do.

In 2002, Burma and Russia agreed to cooperate on the construction and
operation of a nuclear reactor for medical research. Moscow bowed out of
the deal earlier this year because the Burmese could not pay the
construction costs.

Ross Dunkley, editor of the Rangoon-based Myanmar Times, responded to the
allegations by echoing the regime’s line, which says the article is
speculative and lacks evidence.

When asked his opinion of the Myanmar Times, Lintner shrugged his
shoulders. It looks and reads fine, he said, but it’s not his first choice
for news on what is happening inside Burma.

"As a journalist I prefer reading the New Light of Myanmar," he said.
"Because it does not pretend to be anything more than a mouthpiece of the
government."